Mama Liked the Roses
by Hordak's Pupil
Summary: There is no greater pain to be deprived of love.


**Mama Liked the Roses**

**By Hordak's Pupil**

**Abdul Aziz (The Persian)**

'You shall open Faust to a cursed house...,' those words echoed in my mind driving me insane. Erik had not been seen since the note was delivered to Messieurs Moncharmin and Richard. "Erik are you here?" I call out as I place a hand on the door. To my surprise it was unlocked. "Erik?" I placed my hand on the pistol in my coat pocket. I didn't like resorting to violence but one must be careful with Erik.

I walk into the foyer. There is no sign of the fiend. I call out again for him only this time in Farsi. He knows that I am serious when I speak in my mother tongue. There is no answer but I see a light on a distant room. "Erik!" I make my way into the grand hallway and call out again in Farsi this time calling angel. I can hear music being hummed beautiful yet sad at the same time.

Silently I make way down the hall and into the lit room, "By Allah," I found myself in a greenhouse. The sweet smell of rose hung in the air. Somehow the monster has managed to grow a rose garden in the darkness here. I must admit that he is a genius unlike any other. "If only you use it for...," I felt a shadow come over me.

"_Pour ce que Monsieur Daroga_?" a voice asks as I reach for my weapon but the cold bony hand grabs my wrist preventing my reaching it. "Do you like it Abdul?" Erik asked me but was unsure of his motives. He asks me if I will not try to trick him. I tell him he has my word. "Ah yes, your word Daroga," I pull the hand away from my coat as Erik releases me.

"How are you able to grow them down here?" the fiend laughs and points to a shaft in the wall. He explains he uses mirrors to channel the sunlight down here. He says the same boiler that feeds the torture chamber also delivers warmth here. "Amazing, but why?" I ask him as he sighed.

**Erik (age 4)**

"Mama? Mama _Où es-tu_?" I call out but she is no where to be found. I can hear the sound of music. Someone is humming a tune. "Mama is that you?" I call out following it until I reached the backyard, Mother was attending to the rose bushes. She loved so much and would often call them her children- something I wish she'd say to me.

"_Que faites-vous au nom de Dieu_?!" a voice asks as I feel her take my the sleeve of my shirt and drag back inside. "I thought I told you never to come out here!" I nod but say I was lonely and was looking for her. "You know you can never let the people see you," she says as we enter the kitchen. "Erik, have you finished you lessons?" she asks trying to change the subject.

"I finished the mathematics lessons like you said," she sighs looking at a vase on the table. "_Elles sont belles_" I reach out to touch it but she smacks my hand. She tells me I must never touch them. She says they have thorns and could hurt myself. She asks me why I came down in the first place. "You said when I finished the lesson you would give me something." She asks what I want. "A kiss,"

Her face contracted in disgust. I tell her she can kiss me on the forehead. She says nothing but throws my mask on the floor and tells me to go back to my room. "_Maman pourquoi tu ne m'embrasses pas?_" she says nothing but races out of the kitchen. I look up at the roses again, "You don't know how lucky you are. She calls you by name but me I am _L'accident et l'horreur._" It was then an idea came to me maybe I showed her I cared for the roses she would love me.

**Erik (Present Day)**

"Man's cruelty to those who are different. It is Iblis' gift to humankind." Abdul says but I tell him the Devil has nothing to do with. He looks with me shock and asks if dare to blame God for my fate but my faith in the creator is tenuous at best. I rarely raise my eyes towards Heaven. "You must have...," I pin the hapless Persian to the wall.

"What must I have Daroga? Faith?!" his eyes darted to his coat. "What are you even doing here Abdul?" I release him and he slumps to the ground. He mentioned my letter to the management expressing my grievances to them. He demands to know what I am planning. "Who says I am planning anything?"

"You wrote in your _letter _that if they fail to heed your warning they shall open Faust to _une maison maudite_?" he hands me the letter as I laugh. I thought he didn't believe such things and relegated them to the world of superstition. "Erik you must promise that you will not do anything."

"Promise?" I ask him as he takes a small Koran from his pants pocket demanding that I swear to God to not harm anyone. "Do you really think your silly threats of Hellfire frighten me?" He glares at me upset at my choice of words. He wanted to curse but bit his tongue back.

"What did you do?" he asks staring at rose bush. I asked what he meant. "You said that you were going to do something to make her love you. What was it?" I sigh thinking back to that time.

**Adalene (Erik's mother)**

I fondled the rosary in my hand. It was given to me for my first communion. I had planned to give it to my child but to give to it to it would be sacrilege. "What would you have me do God?" I asked hoping for answer. In my youth I would hear his angel speak to me. "The horror scared them off and cursed me!" I keep asking what sin I committed to deserve such punishment. I closed my eyes and focused on my prayers.

I could hear a tune being played- the Lullaby of the Bells- an old tune my father would sing for me to help me get to sleep. The gentle tune turned my thoughts away from my prayers. It was like a magic spell. Could my father come from Heaven to take away this burden.

I follow the sound upstairs, "_Mon Deiu_!" I resized it was coming from its room. Part of wanted to run away afraid of whatever horrors could be waiting behind that door but the sound of the tune hypnotized me. Before I could realize what I was doing I call out, "_Père, c'est to_i?"

"I thought you said we were never to talk of him?" Erik's voice asked as I awoke and found him there in the doorway. "I know I scared you today and wanted to make it up to you." He motioned me to enter the room. I slowly made my way inside. A clock was in pieces on the table. Not recklessly but as if an expert clock maker would do so. "Come see mama?" he pulled me over to his dresser. "I know how you love your children, but they don't grow in the winter so I made you this."He points to what looks like a flower pot.

He puts a key in the back of the pot and turns it. A mechanical bud pokes out of it as the tune is played. Slowly a clockwork rose bloomed. I could feel tears in my eyes and my mouth dry up. "Now you can see them in the winter." I slowly race out the room. "Mama Wait _Vous ne l'aimez pas_?" he asked as I shut the door on him and raced down the steps.

**Abdul Aziz (Present Day)**

"All I wanted was to see you happy," Erik said as he cut a few flowers and placed them in a bouquet. "All I wanted was your love." His voice faltered as he tried not to cry. Something inside me told me to comfort him. I reach out but he slaps my hand away "DON'T TOUCH ME ABDUL!" he screams as he races into another room.

I followed him into what seemed to be a chapel. Roses adorned every inch of the room and in front was a small altar. "_Veuillez retirer votre chapeau_!" his voice says I turn around. You are in sacred space Daroga. I thought back to how he would refuse to take off his mask in the mosque. He said that he didn't believe in 'outdated and superstitious practices.' I took a breath and brought myself back to the here and now and respectfully remove my cap.

In front of the altar was a small headstone. '_Ici repose une femme du ciel injustement jetée en enfer_.' was engraved on it. I turned to Erik as he scowled at me. "How dare you accuse me of such disrespect," he shouts. "I would never violate her rest. This is a cenotaph." He says always come here on her birthday to pay his respects to her.

"Even after how she treated you still love her?" He says of course he did. It wasn't her fault that he had come into the world. That he was damned from the beginning. "You know God does not damn the newborn." he laughed placing the flowers on the grave and kissed the stone.

"This is the closest I get to kissing her," he says standing up and walking back into the greenhouse with me following close behind.


End file.
